London 2012 Olympics: university swimmer Jack Marriott hopes to engineer butterfly dream

It has been a whirlwind few months for the Oxford University student ever since he won the 50m butterfly title at the British Championships in March with 24.33secs, the sixth-fastest time ever by a Briton.

The race, remarkably, was only his second ever in a long course pool. Unsurprisingly it took a few seconds for Marriott's victory to sink home while commentators were left searching for any information on this new kid on the blocks.

"I was shocked to say the least," Marriott, 20, told Telegraph Sport. "I had no expectations and was really just out there to do my best. I couldn't quite read the scoreboard correctly so I had to get the thumbs-up from a friend sitting in the stands."

Marriott's Hertford College dons were quick to realise his potential and allowed him a year out from his engineering degree. After a successful trial period in March, he moved to Loughborough under the wing of Ben Titley, one of British Swimming's leading coaches, and is now on his Olympic development programme.

By right, Marriott should have already booked his July ticket to the World Championships in Shanghai thanks to his nationals win. However the 50m is a non-Olympic event and British Swimming's selection policy means that he will have to step up his distance to 100m, even though his favoured event is on Fina's world championship schedule.

Considering that he has yet to enter a qualifying time for the 100m, Titley admits that making the worlds is a "strong ask" but for Rio 2016 it's a case of "watch this space". His final shot at a ticket to China will come at the British Gas ASA National trials in Sheffield, starting on Tuesday, when he will chase the one remaining place on offer after Michael Rock confirmed his spot in March.

Plucked out of obscurity in February at the annual Varsity swimming match, Titley has been quick to implement changes to his charge's training, which had amounted to little more than eight hours per week in the term time and one session per week during holidays.

Titley also knew that Marriott's free swimming speed was better than the country's current best 'fly swimmer - despite an eye-opening first session. Surrounded by medallists such as Liam Tancock and Fran Halsall, both coached by Titley, Marriott was understandably nervous when he was asked to get up on the blocks.

"He had gone down in the start position and left his goggles on his forehead," Titley said. "It was like bringing a 10 year-old into the pool for the first time."

Then, on a recent training camp in Majorca, Marriott swam backstroke but didn't know where the ropes and wall were as he hadn't swum outside before.

"That's what we were dealing with," added Titley, who has now raised Marriott's weekly workload to 30 hours. "So apart from showing some videos of his starts and turns, we left him to his own devices until the British trials the following week." He duly romped it and left Commonwealth Games finalist Anthony James trailing in second for good measure.

Having "sofa surfed" around fellow swimmers' digs in Loughborough, he has finally settled down in new accommodation, but he's used to all the moving. His father's work as an accountant for a sugar plantation company has taken the family to Malaysia, Kenya and Barbados, where Marriott spent a lot of time "mucking about" in the Caribbean sea.

Loughborough, though, has brought new challenges. "I am enjoying the moment but the intense training has begun to kick in," said Marriott, who was educated at Charterhouse School. "It's great to be around the elite swimmers and I am learning every day what it is like. I have never been part of a group where all the chat is about swimming."

For all the endless pool talk, he hasn't quite let go of his engineering degree and recently travelled to Geneva along with 10 fellow students to present a design project to CERN, the centre for nuclear research.

It follows a near-billion pound disaster after the organisation suffered a helium leak as it attempted to discover the secrets behind the big bang and early moments of the universe. "They may use some of our concepts," Marriott said. Little wonder that Titley likes his swimmers "a bit off the wall".

"It is definitely a gamble for Ben," Marriott added. "I'm leaving it up to him to see what happens but he is investing a lot of time in me considering he is one of the world's best coaches.

"It has also given me a lot of confidence knowing that there is someone who can see something in my swimming. I know I have a lot to learn but I am privileged to be in this position."

So can he create his own Chariots of Fire tale by making the Olympics? After all, Rebecca Adlington was barely known by the Mansfield Recorder before claiming glory at the Beijing Olympics. "It's too early to gauge really. My strength is my 50m and my weakness is stamina, which you need for the 100m. If I want to compete at the Olympics, I know I have to get my times down. But I don't want to get my expectations up at the same time."

Titley, though, is clearly excited by Marriott's raw talent and admits that the last time he went out on a whim to watch a swimmer was 10 years ago when Fran Halsall, Britain's golden hope for 2012, was just 11 years-old. "That has gone pretty well for someone who turned 21 recently," he said. "Jack hasn't got 10 years, he's got 10 months. It will be a steep learning curve."

Brains on the blocks

Fran Halsall, women's freestyle
The 21 year-old is studying Theology A Level and counts Plato and Aristotle in her book collection. Her favourite quote is from philospher John Mills in 1861: "It is better to be a human dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; Better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied."

Stacie Powell, diving
The synchro and platform diver is currently studying for a PhD in astro-physics at Cambridge University. Represented England at Commonwealth Games.

Andrew Willis, men's breastroke
The Bath ITC swimmer, who is studying chemical engineering, collected silver in the 200m breaststroke at the British National Championships in March.